Sen. Lindsey Graham on Benghazi: 'Stop the stonewalling'

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 15, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And this is a Fox News alert. The Obama administration has released 100 pages of Benghazi-related e-mails that directly contradict what Press Secretary Jay Carney has been telling us since the beginning. Now the documents confirm that the White House and the State Department in fact did play a large role in changing those Benghazi talking points.

And also breaking tonight, Attorney General Eric Holder testified on Capitol Hill earlier about the AP phone scandal. Before he entered the building, a reporter from Breitbart.com asked him about investigating Benghazi. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Holder, will you appoint a special counsel to investigate Benghazi?

ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Joining me now with reaction, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. Senator, let's start with Benghazi. Let's start with the document dump today. Do you think, A, we've got all the documents and what do you take out of these e-mails?

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: Well, I haven't seen the e-mails, but I know why they were released. They had to. The pressure is building on multiple fronts. For the first time, we're beginning to get information about the White House's involvement in changing the talking points. If I could have answer to one question out of Benghazi it would be the following -- who chose Susan Rice to go out on Sunday, the 15th of September, to tell a story so disconnected from reality?

HANNITY: Yes, well, we'd like to know the answer to that. Are you confident that we have all the e-mails now or do you know that there are more that exist?

GRAHAM: There's a lot more that exist about how the e-mails -- about how the talking points were manipulated.

HANNITY: So you think what we've got tonight was selected, edited, redacted, this does not in any way tell the true story, because it does reveal that the White House -- by the way, it proves that Jay Carney is a total propaganda hack liar, that he should not -- he should be fired. That's number one.

Number two, it also shows that the State Department was up to its eyeballs in creating this lie, and that there were political considerations, both at the White House and within the State Department.

GRAHAM: Do these e-mails tell us how the talking points got changed from the intelligence version to what Susan Rice was given? Do they tell us why they were changed and did they tell us how they came to pick her of all people? She was the most politically compliant person close to the president, didn't know anything about Benghazi, but she was auditioning for secretary of state. Did they tell us how that came about?

HANNITY: Well, how do we get to -- they had the talking points right, were going to tell the American people the truth, and it evolved into an elaborate web of lies where nothing was true. How did we get to that point?

GRAHAM: Well, because of the election. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure this out. The story of Benghazi, if accurately reported, would undercut the narrative Bin Laden's dead, Al Qaeda's on the run, and they manipulated the evidence to help their political re-election. That's pretty obvious. But That's not all the questions.

HANNITY: All right, Senator, stay right there. When we come back, I want to talk about a joint resolution that you're working on with the House as we continue with Senator Lindsey Graham right after the break right here on "Hannity."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: We continue now with South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.

All right, three big scandals, Senator. What have we learned the last couple of day about the administration?

GRAHAM: Very political, sometimes incredibly incompetent and they won't tell you anything unless you keep pounding the wall and be persistent.

HANNITY: What do you think that the -- the president portrayed the IRS commissioner, the interim one, as being fired basically, he was already planning on leaving.

GRAHAM: Well, I can't explain why no one's been held accountable before, during, or after the debacle called Benghazi. They're reacting, in a pretty appropriate way on the IRS side. You know, he's not defending what happened. He's saying we're going to get to the bottom of it.

Good job, Mr. President. Here's what I'd like him to say tomorrow about Benghazi. "I hereby as commander in chief, president of the United States, authorizing every agency of the government who has a survivor or someone who participated in Benghazi, the ability to come forward and talk to the congress without fear of reprisal. I'm going to turn over to the Congress all the relevant documents, all the survivors, all those who participated, and let the chips fall where they may." I wish he would do that.

HANNITY: I wish he would too. You are working with members of Congress for a joint resolution to do what?

GRAHAM: In case he doesn't do that, I'm going to try to challenge our Democratic colleagues who have been stonewalling and defending the administration to a fault on Benghazi. We'll do a joint resolution of the House and Senate, insisting that the administration make available to the Congress the names of the survivors so we can interview them, all the relevant information, and those who participated in Benghazi, so we can get to the truth.

If you're going to provide to the accountability review board access to the survivors and all the documents surrounding Benghazi, you should do the same for the Congress. I'm challenging my Democratic colleagues to stop defending this administration, start pushing for the truth when it comes to Benghazi.

Four Americans lost their lives in a death trap. How did it become so -- such a death trap before? Why couldn't we help them during the attack for 7 1/2 hours and how did the story change so dramatically seven weeks before an election?

HANNITY: We've got a partial document dump today.

GRAHAM: Right.

HANNITY: This is over 8 1/2 months later, and you still don't know who the survivors are, nor have you had the opportunity to speak with most of them?

GRAHAM: Isn't that unbelievable. Eight months after the attack, we haven't heard one word, voluntarily, from a survivor who was at Benghazi. We don't really know -- Lieutenant Colonel Gibson, who told him to stand down?

We'll be talking about Benghazi for months, not because of politics, but because when Americans die in harm's way, and a bond has been broken between those who serve our nation in dangerous places and our government, it must be repaired. The only way to repair it is to get to the truth. Stop the stonewalling, give us the information so we can find out what happened and let the chips fall where they may.

HANNITY: All right, Senator, it's always to see you. Keep up the good work.

GRAHAM: Thank you.

HANNITY: Regardless of political affiliation, people deserve answers. We deserve the truth from our government. Thank you, sir.

GRAHAM: Thank you, Sean, for caring.

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